June 20, 2011, 7:13 pm
I needed a break from prepping the second edition of Cut by Cut: Editing Your Film or Video for delivery next month, hadn't seen a Woody Allen movie in a couple of years, and am a fan of the "eternal city" (guess I'll have to like it on FB) so hit the local multi-plex and [...]

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April 14, 2016, 4:53 am
Here’s a well-executed tutorial to watch and enjoy – and learn from. Using examples from a potpourri of popular movies including Misery, the Matrix, and Easy Rider it explains basic cuts such as match cuts and jump cuts and basic transitions both video and audio. The tutorial is an ode to editing and the joy […]

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February 21, 2016, 7:38 am
Having explained the purpose of montage, its history, and the guidelines for cutting a montage, this last post details the types of montages and then has some fun looking at how some montages have become clichés and been parodied. Types of Montages Montage scenes have many themes – dramatic, comic, news – to list a […]

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January 24, 2016, 6:54 am
The last post introduced montage and talked about the purpose montage serves in fiction and non-fiction pieces. Today’s post summarizes the history of montage and goes over the important rules to keep in mind when you’re actually cutting a montage. A Brief History of Montage To best understand montage it’s important to know its history […]

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January 17, 2016, 6:52 am
December’s issue of MovieMaker Magazine consists of its annual guide to making movies and once again contains an article I wrote, “The Myriad Uses of Montage.” You can buy the hard copy and read the article now or view it online in a few weeks. It’s a case of the editor being edited: My article […]

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December 8, 2015, 5:25 pm
There are filmmakers who are good, filmmakers who are great, filmmakers who are in film history. And then there are a few filmmakers who change film history. Nicola Mazzanti, director of the Royal Belgian Film Archive on Chantal Akerman It was only after her last breath– suicide due to depression following her mother’s death – […]

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October 18, 2015, 7:28 am
Did you ever want to… Know the relationship between Pinocchio and the music in Close Encounters of the Third Kind? … Appreciate the genius of Bernard Herrmann, the composer for Vertigo and other memorable Hitchcock films? … Understand what goes into creating the music for films that so enraptures us? Film composer, professor, and friend […]

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August 25, 2015, 5:08 am
If you live near San Rafael and have a film in progress, starting September 2, I’ll be leading a feedback group, “Work-in-Progress Wednesdays” at CMCM (Center for Media, County of Marin). The workshop is free and will meet every other month. If you’re working on an 8–10 minute short piece, you can show your entire […]

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August 8, 2015, 7:32 pm
When you have a website you get numerous unsolicited offers to improve your SEO. These emails go straight to my Block Senders and junk mail folder. Once in a blue moon – and July 31st there was a stupendous one – you get a request that is a win- win. Kaila Williams from Motion Array […]

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July 15, 2015, 11:55 am
After Louis and Auguste Lumière introduced their Cinematograph to the world and turned its hand crank to run the world’s first film in December 1895, they had many offers to buy the dual camera-projection machine. But the brothers Lumière refused all offers. In 1896 they took their Cinématograph show on the road, opening theatres in […]